Watch Pacquaio vs. Marquez 2004 Fight!

In 2004, Pacquiao faced for the first time Juan Manuel Marquez, after defeating Marco Antonio Barrera for featherweight title. At that time, Juan Manuel Márquez was holding both the World Boxing Association (WBA) and International Boxing Federation (IBF) Featherweight World Titles. The fight took place at the MGM Grand Las Vegas, on May 8, 2004, and after twelve rounds the bout was scored a draw, which proved to be a controversial decision that outraged both camps.

In the first round, Márquez was caught cold, as he was knocked down three times by Pacquiao. However, Márquez showed great heart to recover from the early knockdowns, and went on to win the majority of rounds thereafter. This was largely due to Márquez's counterpunch style, which he managed to effectively utilize against the aggressive style of Pacquiao. At the end of a very close fight, both boxers felt they had done enough to win the fight. The final scores were 115–110 for Márquez, 115–110 for Pacquiao, and 113–113. One of the judges (who scored the bout 113–113) later admitted to making an error on the scorecards, because he had scored the first round as "10–7" in favor of Pacquiao instead of the standard "10–6" for a three-knockdown round.If this judge had scored the round "10–6" for Pacquiao (as the other two judges did) the result would have been a split decision in favor of Pacquiao.

Watch disappointing 'draw' match of Pacquiao and Marquez here!